I’ve been to many concerts in my life, but I don’t recall any event where the opening act made such a big impression that the main act didn’t have any chance to top it. But there must have been many occasions where a newcomer band (still unknown to the audience) totally stole the show of an established band the people came for, just to ignore them after they were blown away by the supporting show. For example, it must have been hard to get on the stage after a gig by Elvis Costello and the Attractions ca. 1978.
Has anybody of you ever witnessed such an event? Maybe even a historical moment?
To make it clearer: I am not looking for outstanding performances during a festival with 5+ acts or shows with two acts of a similar status on a double bill, but I think you get the picture.
Jimi Hendrix opening for the Monkees tour springs to mind. Of course, i was too young for that.
My big brother saw the Who is 1968-ish as an opening act for someone in the Sacramento Memorial Auditorium. Not sure who was the headliner. Hard to top the 60’s Who.
Not historical, but Loudon Wainwright III opened for Buzzy Linhart at our college around 1971. Wainwright was amazing (he’s still the best solo performer (without a band) I’ve seen) and Linhart knew it. It was clear from Linhart’s patter that he had seen this happen on the tour before and he was practically begging the audience to give him a chance.
Not exactly what the OP is after, but Tracy Chapman’s unsceduled performance at Nelson Mandela’s 70th Birthday Concert pretty much blew everyone else out of the water.
On their first North America tour, Stray Cats someone thought it would be a great idea to have The Busboys as the opening act.
I saw them at Sunrise Musical Theatre in Sunrise, FL. The Busboys tore the fucking roof off the place. We brought them back for 3 encores. They played for more than an hour and 15 minutes.
Stray Cats, thankfully, were a mostly high energy act back then, too, so they got the audience back without too much trouble (opening with Stray Cat Strut prolly helped) and then they came back for 4 encores. They played for about 2 hours.
Tix for my girlfriend and I cost me $24, $12 each. It’s still one of the best shows I’ve ever seen.
Back in 78 or 79, I saw Boston on the tour for their second album. The opening act was Sammy Hagar, and he was the only opening act I’ve ever seen where I could honestly say that he blew the headliners away. Of course, Boston didn’t help their case by sleep-walking through their set, but Hagar had that crowd so fired up that I’m not sure Boston could have matched it even if they brought their A-game.
I saw Metallica when they were the warm-up for Raven, back around '82-ish (iirc? Mustaine was still with 'em, fwiw). It was at a little punk-rocky place in Austin, TX called ClubFoot (long gone now), and Metallica had barely enough room to stand without falling off the tiny stage due to Raven’s drummer’s large drum set already present onstage. The drummer was infamous for wearing a hockey-goalie helmet and using his head, just to give an idea of the room he wanted. Me and a buddy ended up holding down a mike-stand as Mustaine kept knocking it forward by accident, over and over. We got free beer for our efforts (from him, pretty cool for a kid my age then, LOL!).
Raven rocked, no doubt, but Metallica, in those early days, rocked even harder (to the N-th and then some!) Damn, I wish I had video of that show! Being about 4-5’ away from each band member for the entire show for less than $10 (think it was only $4, iirc).
Yeah, best warm-up EVER, imho. Metallica sucks now, but not then
In the 80s New Kids On The Block were the opening act for teen singer Tiffany, and they proved to be more popular, eventually the bills were switched as they hit the charts and Tiffany faded away
In the 70s there was a lot of tension with Neil Sedaka who was an opening act for the Carpenters. As the 70s wore on Sedaka experienced a comeback and by the mid 70s the Carpenters fell out of the charts all together. (reaching #1 with Laughter In the Rain and Bad Blood) Add to this Sedaka’s songs were being used by the Captain And Tennille an act with a similar sound to the Carpenters. Richard Carpenter’s ego took a big hit and the Carpenters dropped Sedaka who by then was performing as a revival main act
I was at a gig for an Edinburgh based band called Ballboy a few years ago. The were being supported by another Edinburgh base band called Aberfeldy. The support band got an encore, and the audience wanted them on again as soon as they finished that. Never seen anything like it before, nor since.
Flo & Eddie (with Aynsley Dunbar, Don Preston, etc) did a helluva good show for a very appreciative audience. It was really something. They were great, and everybody knew that everybody knew it.
Headliners:
Allman Brothers (promoting Eat A Peach; Duane is dead) were flat out awful. Listless. Not clicking. Gregg trying to make excuses for it by constantly bitching between songs about how crappy the rented keyboards were, as if that were the crucial factor.
I once went to see a pretty decent alternative band from Philly in NYC, who made of the mistake of bringing along Robert Randolph and the Family Band as their opening act, well before they had made much of a name for themselves outside of Philly. Ahem. A high-energy funk/gospel band led by the Hendrix of the pedal steel – I could have left before the main act started and been perfectly satisfied.
And I don’t think Randolph was pulling a James Brown at the T.A.M.I Show kind of routine, trying to stick it to the opening act … he was probably grateful to get some exposure to a NYC stuff-white-people-like audience. And the other band probably knew what they were getting into.
